Greenpeace is hitting out at the Government’s plan to
scrap and rewrite the Resource Management Act (RMA), calling
it a hostile takeover of nature.
“The government’s
proposed reforms are based on the dangerous idea that if you
own a piece of land, you should be able to do what you like
with it – even if that means polluting rivers, cutting down
forests, or pumping nitrates into drinking water,” says
Greenpeace spokesperson Gen Toop.
“This isn’t reform
– it’s environmental vandalism.”
In its
announcement, the Government has signalled that it plans to
premise the country’s legal environmental protection
framework on private property rights.
“Treating nature
as private property ignores the reality that rivers,
forests, and wildlife don’t stop at the boundary line. As
we’ve seen in Canterbury, the nitrate pollution from
intensive dairy farms doesn’t stay on the farm. It can
travel underground and contaminate people’s drinking water
many kilometres away,” says Toop.
“Alongside the Fast
Track Approvals Act and the Treaty Principles Bill, this is
part of the Luxon Government’s war on nature designed to
tear apart environmental protections so that corporations
can exploit and pollute the environment with no
guardrails.”
“This Government can’t even manage
getting lunches to school kids – we certainly can’t trust
them to rewrite the rules on something as complex and
critical as environmental protection.”
Greenpeace is
calling for the Government to halt the RMA reforms and
instead strengthen laws that protect nature and uphold Te
Tiriti o
Waitangi.
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